Week 30: Cabbage

Sorry about the lack of updates on the blog! I have a bunch of stuff to add on here as soon as I have time to get pics uploaded onto the computer. In addition to the Thanksgiving weekend craziness, Brian and Ellie and I have all battled illness in the past week. Brian had some sort of stomach bug, which I got to a lesser degree a few days later. And poor Ellie was diagnosed with an ear infection and strep throat earlier this week. I didn't know that toddlers sometimes get a chest rash as a symptom of strep... that is, until the daycare workers on Tuesday called to say that she had one! She's doing much better now that she's been on antibiotics for a few days and is enjoying the extra episodes of "Dora" that her sick time bought her :)

In baby news, we're still absorbing and celebrating the BOY news we got from last week's ultrasound. The name search is officially underway... which may provide for some argument fodder over the next couple months, although we've found several that we both like. (And, no, we're not going to advertise the name possibilities on here since we've learned from the past that there are too many opinions out there.)
I'm not sure Ellie understands the whole baby brother concept yet, but she's enjoying telling people. She spent five minutes at the dinner table the other day yelling to the dogs: "It's a brother!" And she inherited an "I'm a big sister" book (along with dozens of other books — yay!) from her cousins in Nebraska, so we've been enjoying adding to her reading rotation.
Our little man continues to grow and kick and tumble around in my belly. It's a lot of fun feeling all of the movement, even though some of those jabs are starting to hurt. He's getting muscle, apparently. And since he's moving upward these days, my breath is getting shorter. Just a quarter of the way left to go, though!

Here's the week's update:
Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after he's born, he'll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

Week 29 and Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving!
We've got more than our share to give thanks for this year, and we're thinking of all of our loved ones today — near and far. We got a second look at the baby this week and our doctor told us the sex! We thought we'd let Ellie share the news and some advice she has for her sibling.



We're all SO excited about the news and can't wait to meet this little one! So thankful today and every day this baby gets closer to arrival.

Most importantly, the doctor said everything looks good with the baby and my pregnancy so far. Here's the update for this week:
Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

Victory dance

It's no "double-check discount" move, but Ellie seems to have come up with her own touchdown celebration dance. Here's hoping she gets to use it in helping the Packers celebrate a lot of TDs in the Thanksgiving game!

Going running

Ellie wants to do anything and everything that Brian and I do these days. One of her favorite's is "going running," which she decides to do quite frequently. Here's a couple shots of her getting on the gear she deems necessary for these outings. In the top one she gets points for the running shirt and digging out Brian's headphones.
In this one, however, she got her baby dressed (including sneakers) but forgot her own pants :)

Library trip

Ellie's gone to a few story hours at the downtown library in recent weeks. Brian took her one weekend and I took her (AND her baby) this past Saturday. She's very excited to visit the library, but she doesn't always last long during the actual story time. The librarian there does a great job and picks out five or six books to share. Ellie's threshold is about one book, at least in this setting, so we usually wind up somewhere else in the children's section of the library looking at books and toys on our own. Here are a couple shots of her pre-story time when sitting was still an option and she got to check out the moving sculpture, which she calls "the birdies."

Week 28: Chinese cabbage

Welcome to the third trimester! I was psyched to hit that milestone this week, even though I know it means a lot more discomfort is headed my way. In these last three months we'll watch my basketball belly grow to the size of a watermelon — which I didn't totally believe in the first pregnancy until it actually happened. As you can see from the new family picture I put up here, I've already grown quite a bit.
The average weight gain this last trimester is 11 pounds. I'm already up about 20 from my starting weight, so I'm definitely going to try not to go beyond that gain... but the baby may have other ideas. My mom (at 5-foot-4 and about 120 pounds) said she always put on more weight than recommended during her five pregnancies, and instead of worrying about it she just got really good at giving the doctor a dirty look if he gave her a hard time about it. We grow babies big in my family, with my siblings and I each weighing between 9.5 and 10 pounds at birth.
All that being said, even though I'm scaling back on running at this point in the pregnancy I'm hoping to stay active with walking and yoga and chasing Ellie around.

Here's what the experts have to say this week:
By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Severe weather, close quarters

We had some crazy weather in Lafayette on Monday. The day started with thunderstorms (weird enough for November) and the winds picked up through the day until a tornado watch was issued in the afternoon. I arrived at Ellie's day care just as the warning sirens started going off. I was initially relieved to be out of my vehicle and in the building, and I was happy to actually have eyes on Ellie in that situation. However, once I'd arrived I was there for the long haul since they wouldn't let me or Ellie leave until the tornado risk was gone. The 30-minute warning was extended to last more than an hour... and we all had to spend it in the very small bathroom of Ellie's day car classroom. That's right, it was 75 minutes spent in this 8x8 bathroom with 10 toddlers, three teachers and two other parents. Oh, and the teachers decided to close the door at some point to keep the kids from escaping... but that meant the temperature slowly climbed to about 100 degrees (or at least it felt like it). Wow, were we happy to get cut loose when the all-clear was issued. I happened to have my camera with and got a couple shots of the mayhem.